Monthly Archives: November 2007

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And this interminable, convoluted lede from a Washington Times story will tell you why:

More than 100 minutemen showed up en masse in Phoenix to counterprotest a pro-immigration group that sought to shut down a local furniture store for hiring off-duty deputies to keep illegal-alien day laborers off its property and they have pledged to come back every weekend.

What is it about this debate that attracts the most obnoxious, crazed elements from all sides?

To begin, we have a furniture store in Phoenix that decided it doesn’t want to be a pickup spot for day laborers (read: illegal immigrants looking for work). That seems entirely understandable — what business wants its parking lot overrun by loiterers? So the store hired off-duty deputies, as is its right, to police its grounds.

This should not be a controversy. Private businesses are fully entitled to use their property for … private business. They have no obligation to provide free organizing spaces for day laborers, skateboarders, petition-gatherers or anybody else.

But various pro-immigration activists, who seem to come endowed with an overwhelming sense of entitlement, apparently believe that illegal immigrants not only have an inalienable right to be in the U.S., but also to organize and gather wherever and whenever they please, even on private property. So, naturally, they’re protesting the furniture store’s decision to hire private security.

At which point enter the so-called minutemen, who are right in this instance, but can be downright scary in their view of every perceived slight as evidence of an “invasion.” And now this poor store, which probably never wanted to do more than sell furniture in the first place, finds itself playing host to the screamers and shouters on both sides — with no end in sight.

This incident calls to mind the insanity in Simi earlier this summer, when pro-immigration activists abused the notion of sanctuary by putting an illegal immigrant up in a church, and anti-immigration activists abused basic decency by marching upon the church in an effort to perform a “citizen’s arrest.”

Then as now, the wackos tend to dominate the debate — which is why the debate never goes anywhere.

Two things will happen within forty eight hours of each other. One is infuriating. The other one should be cause for celebration and uplift. But both tell much about the state of race matters in America. The first is the return of nappy head ho shock jock, Don Imus to the airwaves. Hell kick off his return to ABCs flagship station, WABC, in New York City with a big townhall of the airwaves style shebang. Two days before Imuss triumphal return, marks the date fifty two years ago, December 1, 1955, that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus.

Her courageous stand against segregation was a monumental turning point in the civil rights movement. It should have sent the lasting message that the fight against the horror of bigotry, intolerance, and racial hate must never cease. But that message has been lost, strayed, misplaced, or deliberately squashed. Imus’s blaze of glory return is a huge sign that intolerance is not only alive and well in the media business, among Imuss legions of fevered fans, but also among many more who cheered him on and ducked, dodged, deflected attention from, or flat out defended his bigoted remarks.

The spate of hanging nooses, the rise in hate crimes nationally, black and Latino gang hate violence in Los Angeles and other cities, and the resurgence of the use of racial epithets and vilification by public and private figures is more glaring evidence that intolerance and bigotry are still alive and kicking.

Re-enter Rosa Parks. What better way to kick back at these twin evils than to declare December 1, Rosa Parks Human Rights Day. Business leaders, school administrators, and elected officials should and could encourage students, workers, and residents to reaffirm in word and deed their commitment to tolerance and diversity. They in turn would urge others to honor and pay tribute to the spirit and memory of Rosa Parks

Friday I was shopping in TJs in far off Pasadena. Blasting on the speakers was not Frosty the Snowman, or Rudolf or those annoying chesnuts forever roasting on an open fire. It was the original head-banging, metal twisting “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath featuring Ozzy Osbourn. Ahhh, I never thought Iron Man would be a sweet relief to my carol-weary ears.

In case you can’t remember it, here’s a youtube clip. Now you can get the opening strains stuck in your head in perpetuity like Chris.

About a month ago, Jonathan asked, “Will (Mike) Huckabees humor and charm make both right and left forget his policies?” My smart-aleck one-word response: no.

At the moment, the right and the left seem to be bearing me out. That’s because Gov. Huckabee has been the target of consecutive Washington Post op-ed hit pieces, first from Richard Cohen, and now from Robert Novak.

Although I never thought Huckabee had much of a chance, Washington officialdom wouldn’t be targeting him if it weren’t concerned. And the fact that he draws flak from the old standard-bearers, both left right, only makes him more intriguing in my book …

Robert Saltzman needs to read his new business card. The Los Angeles BOPC does not the stand for Board of Political Correctness. It is the Board of Police Commissioners, and bears some of the greatest responsibilities in Southern California .

Saltzman is its newest member and his decisions will directly influence life or death situations that impact cops, crooks and citizens alike. Sadly, Mr. Saltzman’s first comments on these responsibilities reflect a stunning lack of knowledge about the Los Angeles Police Department: “Diversifying the police force is a significant problem, perhaps the most significant problem facing the force,” said the USC Law School Associate Dean, in a story in Friday’s DN by Rachel Uranga.

Clearly, Mr. Saltzman has not studied the LAPD. Had he, his comments would reflect facts like these:

71% of the officers graduating from the LAPD’s last four academy classes have been ethnic minorities. Many of the remaining 29% were caucasian women.

More than 45% have been Hispanic

Those classes averaged 17% female

Moreover, had Mr. Saltzman done his homework, he would know that “diversity” of the LAPD did nothing to prevent the problems in the Rampart CRASH squad. The primary perpetrators of the worst LAPD corruption in 50 years were Hispanic and Black. Changing the LAPD’s “color” did no favors for Javier Ovando, who was shot by the very diverse Rafael Perez and Nino Durden. And it did nothing to prevent the MacArthur Park fiasco. Out of the three most senior folks directly involved – the two ground commanders and the Assistant Chief who signed off on the May 1 planning – there was uno gringo hombre.

Clearly a lack of diversity did not contribute to those problems.

More bothersome, Mr. Saltzman’s comments came just hours after an undercover (and thus unnamed) Hollenbeck Division officer was run over and horribly injured by a fleeing suspect. This incident has already raised tremendous questions among LAPD rank-and-file as to whether the BOPC’s new post-Devon Brown shooting policy (which essentially prohibits firing at moving vehicles) nearly got this officer killed.

Unfortunately, the attempted murder of a cop isn’t on the radar of the LAPD’s newest leader. For what it’s worth, I’m told this officer is Hispanic – he’s diverse!! – so it’s politically correct for Commissioner Saltzman to care.

The officers I know – almost all beat coppers exclusively below the rank of lieutenant – would prefer that Mr. Saltzman devote his attention to addressing a few other issues that impact the day-to-day policing of Los Angeles. A sampling of the greater concerns:

Officers (of all “diversities”) are fleeing the LAPD. Why?

The Consent Decree is tying cops hands and keeping hard charging cops out of choice assignments. How does that lower crime? How does it solve the above problem?

Gang members are said to be getting through the LAPD hiring process – academy cadets have been caught throwing gang signs in the hallways. Is that just maybe a bad sign? Or is that the kind of diversity he strives for? After all, crooks are part of society. Perhaps the LAPD reflect them as well.

I’m told of cadets re-cycled five and six times, who have been in training longer than a lot of their instructors have been at the Recruit Training Center . Is that the kind of diversity you want, Mr. Saltzman? Is that the cop you want coming to your door with a loaded gun?

The revised Shooting Policy might have resulted in gruesome injuries to one cop already. Perhaps it should be changed before one gets killed? Maybe?

The Department’s ASTRO radios are falling apart and quite nearly useless. They are a threat to the safety of officers and citizens alike (calling 911 is useless if the dispatcher can’t raise an officer). “If there’s another Northridge Earthquake, the peole of Los Angeles will see just how bad the ASTROs are,” one copper told me. Perhaps funding their replacements will save more lives than counting noses?

Yes, dealing with these issues will force a lefty like Mr. Saltzman to blame someone other than the LAPD for all the world’s faults. But, it might just make LA a safer place for folks of all colors – even the ones in blue.

Over the weekend, the L.A. Times and others confirmed rumors that the adulterous affair between Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Mirthala Salinas had, at last, come to an end. And not coincidentally, the Times today has a story suggesting that the future political prospects for Villaraigosa — once widely considered a lock to be California’s next governor — have dimmed considerably.

This is a personal and political tragedy on so many levels: Villaraigosa has lost his marriage of 20 years, his family, and, possibly, his political future. Salinas has lost her career and her professional reputation. Meanwhile, the suffering of Corina Villaraigosa and the Villaraigosas’ children is incalculable.

And for what? Surely this is not what Antonio or Mirthala bargained for when they began their affair.

But life tends to work that way: The desired good sought through bad choices usually proves to be illusory. The false promise of happiness ultimately reveals itself as a cruel lie. At one point or another, we all allow ourselves to succumb to such deceptions. And in due time, we eventually learn that we have sown the seeds of our own destruction.

For Antonio and Mirthala, the lie has run its disastrous course. We can only hope and pray that it will be followed by real healing and reconciliation.

Vice President Cheney is in the hospital suffering from cardiac arrhythmia. The good health of the Vice President, who has already suffered four heart attacks and several episodes of arrhythmia, is of concern to all. Democrats in particular, and not necessarily for humanitarian reasons of, uh, bleeding-heart liberalism, are worried.

Were the Vice President to resign for health reasons (more plausible than to spend more time with his family) this would create a great opportunity for mischief and distraction. Right now we are enjoying the mud-wrestling that comes from having no incumbent president or vice president running. A vacancy in the office of the vice president would create some real distractions and captivating sideshows.

President Bush could try to appoint one of the leading Republican candidates to fill in. The nominee would need Senate confirmation. Easy confirmation of an active candidate would be problematic. Bush could get great mileage over the Democrats filibustering an issue of true national concernthe absence of a vice president. He could say that the Democrats put partisan political advantage over the interests of our nation.

President Bush could also play it another wayand nominate someone not in the race. Then once this person takes office he, or she, (Condi Rice?) could then step in to rescue the party from its already mixed up and incoherent flock of candidates.

All of this is exceedingly unlikely, but speculation is fun stuff in an election year.

The title of this post is deliberately misleading. Yes, the story I’m about to quote is horrific, and it involves illegal immigration, but is a far cry from the “illegal immigration horror stories” we are used to hearing about shiftless foreigners who come here only to eat our food, take our jobs, and spit on our flag. Check out this story from the AP:

A 9-year-old boy looking for help after his mother crashed their van in the southern Arizona desert was rescued by a man entering the U.S. illegally, who stayed with him until help arrived the next day, an official said.

The 45-year-old woman, who eventually died while awaiting help, had been driving on a U.S. Forest Service road in a remote area just north of the Mexican border when she lost control of her van on a curve on Thanksgiving, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said….

Her son, unhurt but disoriented, crawled out to get help and was found about two hours later by Jesus Manuel Cordova, 26, of Magdalena de Kino in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. Unable to pull the mother out, he comforted the boy while they waited for help….

As temperatures dropped, he gave him a jacket, built a bonfire and stayed with him until about 8 a.m. Friday, when hunters passed by and called authorities, Estrada said…

“For a 9-year-old it has to be completely traumatic, being out there alone with his mother dead,” Estrada said. “Fortunately for the kid, (Cordova) was there. That was his angel.”

Cordova was taken into custody by Border Patrol agents, who were the first to respond to the call for help.

Pretty amazing story, isn’t it? Cordova gave up his quest to get to the U.S. — and ultimately got nabbed by Border Patrol — because he selflessly stopped to help the boy.

I don’t mean to suggest all illegal immigrants are this heroic. They’re human beings, after all, and as such have many of the same vices and flaws as the rest of us. But that’s just the point: They’re human beings — a point too often lost amid rhetoric that paints all illegal immigrants as garden-variety criminals or freeloaders.

Are there gangbangers and welfare cheats among the illegal-immigrant population? Sure, but there are heroes, too. And it would be helpful if we could have laws and debates that distinguished between the two.

Let me introduce myself — I’m a semi-regular contributor to the op-ed pages of the Daily News. Some more info on me can be found here. (You’ll notice that the Daily News is mentioned before those cross-town people.)

I’m grateful to Mr. Weinkopf for the chance to be a part of Friendly Fire. I have immense admiration for Chris, the kind of honest, principled, yet intellectually supple writer who is too rare in our day. Okay, enough apple-polishing.

I grew up with one foot in America and one foot in Pakistan, which seemed a rather boring matter until Pakistan ended up becoming the key front in the war on terror (yeah, yeah, I know Iraq is the key front, but c’mon….). Now I spend a great deal of time trying to make sense of how my two homelands collided in such remarkable ways. As one who has lived in both places, I feel that precious few people on either side “get” the other side. And I see that as a huge challenge for us as Americans going forward. Yes, I do see my identity as fundamentally “American,” although I’m also comfortable with the “Pakistani” hyphen.

I’m politically independent; but though I often criticize the president, I’m ultimately more of a libertarian than a liberal. And I look forward to being caught in the friendly fire here!

Vindu Goel at the Mercury News wrote a column about a solar incentive program started by Berkeley that makes a lot of sense to me. I’d love to have a way to go solar. But I can’t afford to outlay 20k in one chunk. And with interest rates going up and property rates down, who wants to charge it to a home-equity line of credit? Not me.

Cisco DeVries, chief of staff to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and a former official in the Clinton administration, … crafted a plan, just approved in concept by the city council, to help Berkeley homeowners and businesses pay for solar electric systems, solar water heaters and other energy-efficiency improvements through a customized, voluntary surcharge on their property taxes.

Essentially, the city would use its access to cheap bond financing to offer residents low-cost home-improvement loans, repaid over 20 years by whoever owns the property. Homeowners paying the typical $15,000 for a solar-power system after federal and state rebates would owe an extra $100 to $115 a month in taxes, much of which would be offset by savings on their monthly electric bill.

Meanwhile, taxpayers who don’t borrow anything wouldn’t pay a dime. All administrative costs would be borne by participants.

But how would the city of L.A. keep its general fund afloat if DWP’s revenue stream dried up by helping people to get off the grid?